THE JIM BROWN COMPANY 870-425-5775
Our Family Serving Yours Since 1964
AIRCONDITIONING QUESTIONS My thermostat is calling for cooling, my house is hot, and the indoor fan is running but there is still no cool air. What can I do? Go outside and see if the fan on the air conditioner is running. If it is not go to your electrical panel and find the circuit breaker for the air conditioner and turn it completely off and back on. If it still does not run call the Jim Brown Company 425-5775 and select option 2 on the phone for service. The thermostat is set to turn the cooling on but nothing happens. What can I do? Even if the thermostat is calling for cooling the mode selector switch has to be set to cooling. There are three positions for this switch, heat, off, and cool. Set it to cool and wait 5 minutes for the time delay relay to kick in. If after 5 minutes have passed and the unit still does not run then call The Jim Brown Company 425-5775 and select option 2. I have turned my system on and it does not come on right away why is this? If the system gets turned on and then back off or a power surge is experienced or any short cycle condition is experienced the system has a protection device called a time delay relay that will not let the compressor start back up for a period of 5 minutes. This is to protect the compressor and to avoid wasting energy. My system is not cooling, the outdoor unit is running, the indoor unit is running but not much air or no air is coming out of the registers, what do I do? If you can get to where the indoor unit is look at the coil section and see if there is any ice built up on it. If there is ice present turn your mode switch from cooling to off, turn the fan switch from automatic to on. This will shut down the compressor and turn on the fan of your system. This will melt the ice that has built up on the coil and allow air to once again flow over the coil. Why does this happen? The main reason for this is low refrigerant charge. When the charge is not correct the coil will become empty of liquid refrigerant and the evaporation of the gas will remove enough heat and moisture from the air to form ice. When this starts happening it will eventually create a block of ice out of the coil. The second reason for this is inadequate air flow. The main reason for this is a clogged air filter. This will keep the air from flowing over the coil and ice will form. If either of these things is happening you will need to call the Jim Brown Company 425-5775 for service, select option 2 on the phone and report your problem. Can I put a cover over my air conditioner in the winter for protection? Yes you can if you have a furnace and air conditioner. If you have a heat pump you can not cover it up at any time since it runs all year long. You need to be careful to make sure that you do not trap moisture inside of the cover and make water condense inside of the unit creating problems. It is good to keep leaves and debris out of the outdoor unit but care must be taken to prevent damage with a cover that is too air tight. My outdoor unit is in a dusty place and collects dirt can I clean this dirt off the unit? Yes it is important for the coil area of the unit to be clean. Dirt will become an insulator and keep the unit from producing the proper quantity of cooling and will not give the economy that the unit was designed to give. Care must be taken when using a hose to not let the water pressure bend the aluminum fins and close off the air flow path to the unit. The Jim Brown Company has a program called planned service to provide this service to your air conditioner twice a year. For more information call the Jim Brown Company 425-5775 select option #2 for service. Can I build a brick wall around my outdoor unit? Yes you can but you must give the equipment adequate room to breathe. It is best not to cover a piece of equipment that needs air to function with a solid wall or partition. If you need to you should consult The Jim Brown Company to come look at your project and receive their recommendations. I do not want to see my outdoor unit, can I put it under my porch deck or any overhanging structure from the house? Yes you can but you will need a minimum of 6 feet above the unit for the air that has picked up heat to get away without being reticulated. If the air that has passed over your coil and picked up heat from the existing or ambient air around the unit performance will go down and cost to operate will go up if it is allowed to recirculate. This will make the unit think it is hotter than it is and performance will suffer, cost will go up. I would like to move my unit away from the house and put it somewhere it can not be seen. You can do this if you wish, however there are three things to consider before you do. First, the unit can not be 75 feet from the air handler or indoor coil. This is the maximum length the tubing can be run without upsizing the tubing. The longer the run of tubing the more resistance is created and the performance of the system drops and the cost to operate goes up. The rule on tubing is the shorter the better. Secondly if you run the tubing underground it must be run inside of a PVC sleeve. The third reason for this is not only will the tubing have to be extended but the electrical supply to the outdoor unit will have to move as well. I do not want the water from the evaporator to be near my home can I move it out further in the yard? Yes you can, but you need to remember that the function of the drain is to allow the water to move away from the unit in the most efficient way. If the drain become plugged, runs up hill, or in any way is restricted it will no longer function and the water will flow over the furnace and create a great deal of damage to the furnace. If the furnace is inside the home or in the attic a nonfunctioning drain will cause a great deal of damage to the home by leaking in the furnace closet rotting the floor and damaging the unit or if the system is in the attic it will flow to the ceiling and create damage to that. Why is there black insulation over the big refrigeration line and why is it there? The black insulation or Armaflex is there to keep the refrigerant inside of the line from loosing or gaining temperature. The change of state of refrigerant is how the cooling system works and if the refrigerant does not change temperature the cycle of operation will work at the best level possible. My outdoor unit has failed, do I have to change the indoor coil over my furnace or can I simply change the outdoor unit? The answer to this is a two part answer. If the air conditioner is the same efficiency as the one that was removed then the coil will “match up” and will work. If the old unit is a lesser SEER rating than the new unit the coil and outdoor unit will not match up and the unit will not perform to produce the rated amount of cooling and the efficiency of the unit will be unknown but can be depended upon to be very low. Example: An existing coil and air conditioner are 8 SEER units. The air conditioner going back is a 13 SEER. The system will be mismatched. The efficiency of the combination of the two could be lower than 8 but no higher than 10. Since flow is important and the mismatch has occurred the life of the new outdoor unit will be very much reduced. The manufacturers warranty will not be in effect when the coil and outdoor unit are not matched. What does SEER mean? SEER means seasonal efficiency energy ratio. This is the fuel performance of the equipment. This has nothing to do with the output of the unit. A 6 SEER three ton unit will produce as much cooling as a 19 SEER unit. The difference is in the cost of producing that cooling. This becomes “miles per gallon” if you will. The higher the SEER rating the less fuel is used and the more “miles per gallon”. I am going to buy a new unit , is it a good idea to purchase a high SEER unit? This decision is an investment decision. If you are choosing a 13 SEER as your base choice unit and considering upgrading to a 16 SEER unit , the choice will be based on two factors ; First , how much energy do you require to cool your home. If you have an existing home look at a recent bill that you did not have any cooling going, such as March or April , will tell you how much electricity your home uses with no cooling load. Then look at your highest electrical bill and that will tell you how much you used under the biggest load. Look at the difference , and if it is big , you will make money by purchasing the highest SEER equipment you can afford. If the difference is small it will take longer to justify the highest SEER equipment. North Arkansas Electric Co-Op will come to a customer’s home and do an energy audit and give you actual information on the ability of your unit to save you energy dollars. If you are building a new home , a load can be run on the structure and the amount of cooling required can be determined and the savings can be estimated to help determine if a high SEER unit is needed. My home is always clammy and full of moist air what can I do to eliminate this problem? First thing to be done is to eliminate outside air from entering your home. Good insulation and to make sure your home exfiltrates a little air rather than infiltrates air will make sure you are in the most efficient mode you can be. Opening your windows at night is something that you do for only one reason, you like outside air. It is the most costly thing you can do if you air condition your home. It brings in cool moisture saturated air into the conditioned space that has to be dealt with. The air conditioner is a dehumidifier by nature. It removes moisture from the air when it is running. Condensate from your evaporator that flows to the outside of your conditioned space shows you how much water is being taken from the inside and run to the outside. To make your house dry you need to run your air conditioner as long as possible and still maintain your level of comfort. This is where variable speed blowers, two speed compressors and other sophisticated pieces of equipment pay huge dividends. They allow your system to stay on line and run while reducing the cost of operation. This longer run time will remove the maximum amount of water from the air inside the conditioned space making it be as dry as possible. Sizing equipment too large will cause a problem removing moisture. Big equipment will run for a short period of time then shut off. This is good for flash cooling but does not remove much moisture from the air since the run time is low. Smaller units that run more will do a better job. Can I buy anything to eliminate excess moisture inside my home during the air conditioning season? Yes there are several things that offer lower relative humidity inside of a conditioned space. Variable speed indoor blowers will adapt themselves to the needs of the system and maximize the ability of the system to remove moisture. Humidity controls can be installed on systems to make the equipment operate in the most efficient way. These will force the unit to work as long as possible to remove moisture. Two speed compressor units will allow a system to function properly on a reduced capacity mode. They will make the unit run at the low speed to reduce the moisture inside until the system can not keep up with the load before it changes. This forces the unit to run at the least cost mode for the longest period of time possible to remove the maximum amount of moisture and use the least amount of energy. The most efficient and energy efficient units on the market today use variable speed indoor blower motors and multiple speed compressors in the outdoor equipment. Does a programmable thermostat save money on an air conditioning system? Yes it does. The temperature must not be dropped any more than 3 or 4 degrees when daytime energy saving mode is used. Since the heat is building outside and inside the house the difference between set back and desired temperature must not be too great. The house will become a heat sink and force the unit to run and maybe not catch up to the desired temperature during extreme hot temperatures. The 3 or 4 degree rule is a good rule when thinking about air conditioning systems. |
